AROUND 60 per cent of Australians admit to being unprepared to stop working and expect to run-out of superannuation and cash savings half-way through their retirement.

A survey of 1000 Australians, conducted by banking giant HSBC, found workers expect to be forced to rely on the government pension when their retirement savings run dry after an average of just 11 years.

And in a worrying development for future government budgets, 56 per cent of Australians have never saved for their retirement outside of their superannuation.

HSBC head of wealth management Graham Heunis said future generation are going to be saddled with huge debts as the country's ageing population heads into retirement.

"People need to start saving earlier otherwise the budget pressure will be huge in 20 years,'' he said.

The most recent research shows the average Australian male has just under $200,000 in superannuation while women have only $112,000. And Australians expect 30 per cent of their retirement income to come from the pension, 20 per cent from superannuation, 14 per cent from cash savings, 11 per cent from property and eight per cent from shares and investments.

Mr Heunis said Australians tended to focus on short-term savings goals, with 53 per cent prioritising on saving for things like a holiday over retirement.

The survey results come amid speculation about possible changes to the superannuation system in the Gillard Government's Budget in May.

The Financial Services Council and the SMSF Owners' Alliance yesterday joined forces to call on the Government and Coalition to guarantee no further tax changes will be made to superannuation.

FSC chief executive John Brogden said the negative impact of tax and other changes to superannuation in recent years has seen a net reduction of $5.4 billion from the system.

"Every time a new tax is threatened, confidence in the system is lost,'' he said. "There have been 10 substantial tax changes to superannuation since 2008. The industry has strongly supported sensible reforms to the system, but we've had enough.''

Mr Brogden said that only Australians who start work from 2019 - when superannuation contributions are 12 per cent and retire 40-50 years later will get the benefits of a lifetime of adequate contributions.

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